Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-07-03
RUSSIA'S WEAKNESS.
The POLICY BY WHICH EUROPE HAS
BEEN DuPxD.
Her Pistol a Harmless one-Asia as Q
Place to Hake Soldiers.

be worth while to pause here for mo
mept in the present series of letters
from France to state briefly the rea
facts. which are masked by these i'm
posing demonstrations. Those who
still contriye to believe in the "colossa
strength" of the unwieldy empire
whose colossal weakness has twict
been glaringly exposed during tho
present generation, are fond o.
arguing that if Russia, which habitual
" throws a veil Of such impenetrabl'
mystery over all its proceedings, ha'
really attracted the attention of the
outer world by extensive preparation
for war, it must be because these prepa
rations are too vast to be hidden, anC
doubly formidable on that very &C
count. This would be reasonable
were the might of the Russian EN-
pire real instead of being onl,
apparent. But in fact what Rus
sia is now trying so hard to concea
is not her strength, but her weakness
She is doing her best to impose upor
distant spectators-and to all appear
ance not unsuccessfully-by an impos
ing parade of mighty preparations fol
a war which she is virtually incapable
OF carrying on.
in truth, the present position OF the
Russian Government and its habitua
policy for many years past cannot bt
better defined than by popular story
which well deserves to be true whether
il actually is so or not. An American
traveller, while returning home n
nightfall through one Of the suburbs o.
Paris, suddenly encountered savage
looking fellow, who stepped upto him
threateningly and roughly demanded
his money. The American replied by
clapping pistol to his assailant''
head, and then Selling him by the
throat as he recoiled in dismay,
shouted Justify for help. BY some
miracle a policeman happened 70
be within hearing. The thief was Sc
cured, and when brought up for ex'
animation the next morning the case
against him was too clear to admit Of
any doubt. But scarcely had he been
disposed of when the magistrate turned
sharply upon the American aud asked
with a searching look, Monsieur, have
you lice nse to carry firearms ?" "No,
/ haven't" Then l must fine you
for having that pistol in your posses
SION" "But is there any fine for car
rying a pistol which cannot be fired 2
Certainly not" Well, then, I'm
all right, for my pistol has no lock and
/ was just taking it to gunsmith to -
Here he was cut short by yell of fury
az despair from the thief, who, clinch-
ing his fists wildly, devoted himself t.
all the powers Of evil for having been
so easily taken in.
in like manner Russia, for several
generations past, has been bullying
her neighbors with an unseryicablC
pistol, aud has been tolerably success
ful on the whole. In 1929, when hel
standards crossed the Balkan for the
first time the army wherewith Count
Diebitsch struck terror into al
Turkey menaced the Ottoman
capital itself and terrified the
Sultan into signing the humil
iating treaty of Adrianople mustered
less than 10000 effective men at the
close of the campaign, and even of this
handful not few men fell out of theil
ranks before the homeward march be
gan. In 1872, when the supposed
strength Of Russia's Baltic feet was
exciting the qmazement OF III Europe '.pe
still IN the bands OF the build
ers. while others were rendered
practically useless by various radi
cal defects in their construction
In 1885, when Colonel Alikhanoff';
violation of Afghan territory by
the seizure of Pendjeh all but
caused war between England an'
Russia, the latter displayed more thar
her usual cunning in making a few
sGuadrons of Cossacks and one deser
railroad with a carrying power o
barely thirty-two tons per train pas
for q powerful amy and a well-organ
lied system of transport at the yer.
moment when a single vigorous hostile
movement on Englands part woul'
have forced her adversary to choos
between an ignominious retreat and al
overwhelming disaster.
More than once, however, Russia
harmless pistol has been levelled at a.
opponent who had the courage to ties
its power and prove its uselessnes,
Omar Pesha and his Turks in 1853
the allied invaders of the Crimea i
1854, challenged Russia to do he
worst, and the worst that she could q
proved TO be virtually nothing. In tn
spring of 1856 the whole available Nigh
Of the Russian empire gathered togethe
by the Gar Nicholas in the last frenz
Of his despair, was unable to exp'
from the uplands around Sebastopol
vastly inferior force of starving an
hali-frozen men. In the crisis OF th
Russo-Turkish war of 1877 a singl
check before Plevna sufficed TO par
I'VE the victorious advance of the Ru
ian armies and all but changed I'll
fortune of the war.
II must be remembered, moreove
that on both these two last-named o.
casions Russia possessed one great az
vantage which has since been take
away from her-viz., the presence
her ranks of one man Of tirst-rate mil
tary genius whose individual abilli
weil-nigh made good the defects OF h
colleagues. In 1856 Todleben postpone
for many months the doom of Seba
topol, and might possibly have saved
after all could he but have impressed
1.-THE of his own clear. practical sens
upon the middle-headed fools VII
called themselves his superiors. j
1877 Skobeleff carried victory wit
him from the Danube to the Balkan
and even amid the defeat and shan
of Plevna earzed a triumph Il
that portion OF the besiegin
force which he himself con
manded. But the almost simultl
neous death OF Russia's greatest mil
tary engineer and her most brilliar
field officer is an irreparable loss to
country where neither the one nor Ii
other has left any pupil worthy to SUI
coed him. What kind Of figure the me
who now lead Russia's armies would
likely to make against the deadly acc1
racy of Moltke's combinations, ex
cuted by the men who crushed Franz
at one blow in 1870, may be easily in
aeined.
Many persons who ought to knc
better are fond Of extolling Centr
Asia as a military training-school
valuable to Russia as India has been